OceansideOceanside — A charter school with branches throughout California is hoping to open a science and technology academy in the Oceanside Unified School District, but it has temporarily withdrawn its application because of technical issues, officials said.
Orange County-based Magnolia Public Schools notified the school district this week that it would resubmit the petition within two weeks after fixes are made to the document. The school didn’t specify what changes it planned to make, and officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Magnolia announced in mid-December that it hoped to open a branch in Oceanside, shortly after another charter — the Orange County School of the Arts — dropped its controversial plan to build a performing arts school on the campus of Jefferson Middle School. The performing arts charter school is now looking for an alternative site in Oceanside for its program, which serves seventh- through 12th-graders.
The proposed Magnolia Science Academy-Oceanside would eventually serve grades K–12 and would emphasize science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM. The charter school hopes to open in August 2017 with roughly 180 students, according to its original application filed with Oceanside Unified.
Magnolia, which serves 3,790 students statewide, oversees a network of charter schools throughout California, including one in San Diego, at 6365 Lake Atlin Ave., as well as one in San Jose, eight in Los Angeles County and one in Orange County.
Michelle Crumpton, Magnolia’s chief academic officer, wrote in the petition that the charter school would start with grades K-3 in the first year and add a grade each year, making it K-7 by 2022, when the charter petition must be renewed.
The school anticipates 510 students in its fifth year of operation, and about 1,000 students when it becomes a full K-12 school in 2027.
Crumpton said that the “the fast growth of high-tech clusters in San Diego County” will provide future high-wage job opportunities and that her company’s program will help meet that demand.
“Ensuring that the future workforce is properly educated in the STEM disciplines … is a crucial first step in establishing economic sustainability for San Diego County individuals and communities,” she wrote in the petition.
